Abhijit Nath, NET Correspondent, Tripura

Union minister of state for Social Justice and Empowerment, Pratima Bhoumik on Friday chaired a preparatory meeting for an upcoming loan and job fair along with an exhibition to be organized by Alimco NASFDC, NBCFDC, and NSFDC at Civil Secretariat here in Agartala city.

Speaking at the meeting, MoS Pratima urged the banks in Tripura to come forward in providing loans to the Scheduled Castes (SCs) and other backward classes (OBCs) under various projects of the central and state governments to improve the socio-economic status of the divyangjan.

She emphasised that the central government has prioritised the overall development of the divyangjan. The state government is also working on various schemes to improve the socio-economic status of the divyangjan.

MoS Bhoumik said camps were being organized in different parts of the state to assess the number of divyangjan. She directed the department to organize such camps on a larger scale. She said the benefits of various development projects of the department should reach the last person.

In this context, she advised the concerned department to take necessary steps to organize a state-wide loan fair in mid-November. Bhoumik emphasized ensuring the participation of the divyangjan as well as senior citizens in the fair.

Secretary of the Social Welfare and Social Education department JK Sinha said that 18,434 UDID cards have been issued so far. Besides, work is underway to upload these UDID cards in all DDRCs and DDRC is organizing camps to correct all the information. The proposed 4 new DDRCs are in the process of being created. Funds have been allocated to the Skill Development Department for healing the drug addicts and developing their skills.

The union minister of state was accompanied by SW&SE minister Santana Chakma, SC Welfare minister Bhagaban Das and Chief Secretary Kumar Alok.